Miklós Kásler - Zoltán Szentirmay (szerk.): Identifying the Árpád Dynasty Skeletons Interred in the Matthias Church. Applying data from historical, archaeological, anthropological, radiological, morphological, radiocarbon dating and genetic research (Budapest, 2021)

CHAPTER THREE – Archaeological, anthropological and radiological data

• No

attempt was made to explain or harmonize the results obtained by the anthropologists and their colleagues from other fields, in order to arrive at unified conclusions relating to the public health situation of that day and age.

• The

analyses of the inflammatory processes contain the most errors. The authors only mention three kinds of inflammation (syphilis, leprosy, tuberculosis), when in reality, there are many more inflammatory processes, most of which palaeopathologists can easily spot even with macroscopic observation. They did not notice, however, otitis media or mastoiditis in a single case, even though according to both foreign and domestic experience during that era, half of the population showed signs of the disease. In some cases, these processes can only be recognized by the deformity of the hearing canal, with a small enlargement.

• The

tumour-like bone deformities were diagnosed on a visual basis alone, and their size was given inaccurately. Professional pathologists whose knowledge and equipment could have provided a much broader scope of processing and more accurate diagnosis were not involved.

With all of this in mind, Dr Józsa

asks

on the reader s behalf: Who was this gigantic work made for? Was it for historians and archaeologists? They are unable to use the wealth of anthropological data. Or was it for doctors and medical students studying ancient times? Hardly, since they cannot use the severely inaccurate diagnoses of pathological lesions. We have no explanations, conclusions or summary of the anthropological, or at least the biological data. In the end, the question remains: who is this indubitably gigantic work supposed to benefit?

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